


too good a fellow

by springty



Category: Moby Dick - Herman Melville, The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Angst, Gen, I don't know if this is necessarily a crossover, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, its Moby Dick in mechs verse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26945209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springty/pseuds/springty
Summary: on the world of new nantucket, drumbot brian meets a man, an old captain, and foresees his disastrous end. under a different name, on a different starship, as the old captain's first mate, he does his best to save him and his crew. there's no harm by it; it's the right thing to do. and maybe it will ease the guilt he still carries about the last time he tried to do this and failed. one could hope.or - a moby dick retelling in the mechanisms universe, featuring drumbot brian as starbuck.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

When the crew of the Aurora retrieves Brian from the gaseous tail of a comet (however the hell he ended up there, they didn’t know), after he had been left there for at least a century, it is not the first time something like this has happened. And when his shipmates demand to know how he managed this again, he tells them.

The Mechanisms had found themselves on a planet called New Nantucket, and separated shortly thereafter. The little planet had a rather advanced civilization, one that seemed to dedicate itself to starfaring and scientific exploration. Certain members of the crew had fit right in.

As for Brian, he somehow became trusted by a man called Ahab. He called him Starbuck; he couldn’t remember where the name had come from.

Ahab was a difficult man, but somehow Brian found himself with a soft spot for him. He stood on one leg of flesh and blood and another of metal (a fact which Brian had initially been alarmed by, but it was only a simple prosthetic), and he had a pale white scar like lightning down his face. He captained starships for scientific expeditions as a career, and he lived alone. He’d had a family, once, Brian came to learn, but his spouse was lost to the cold dark of space and Ahab resented discussing him. All Brian knew of him had been garnered from a photo on the mantle in Ahab’s home and a few comments made with respect to “that accursed comet.” Ahab’s husband had traveled the stars to study them as well, and never returned from an expedition to study a particular celestial body - Comet MD-1851, colloquially known to New Nantucketers as The White Whale for its large size and blinding whiteness.

The White Whale had captured the minds of New Nantucketers for generations, and Ahab’s husband was not the first nor the last to be lost in pursuing a greater understanding of it. So often did MD-1851 bring misfortune to its would-be researchers that it acquired something of a supernatural reputation. Ahab, for his part, was not dissuaded by any talk of the White Whale’s curse. If anything, it only fueled more the rage he held toward this inanimate celestial body. 

Brian, of course, had seen the shape of Ahab’s end already. The first time the old captain mentioned the comet to him, he knew he intended to chase it across the sky to his own demise, and he also knew that he could not let that happen. He already knew Ahab to be a stubborn man, but he also knew that Ahab trusted him. Perhaps, he allowed himself to hope, he would not be like Gawain, would not be like Arthur.   
When Ahab informed him he would be setting out again for the first time since his husband had not returned, that he had been hired to captain a starship called the Pequod, Brian recognized it as the beginning of the end. He panicked, briefly, didn’t know how he could talk Ahab out of this right now, but then -

“I think you ought to join me,” the old captain had said. 

It had caught Brian off guard, though he supposed it shouldn’t have. Ahab trusted him, and although he didn’t know everything he wasn’t unfamiliar with Brian’s expertise. Brian considered, then recognized this might be his only opportunity. To save the captain and the crew he ended up dragging across the sky. Ahab had not admitted that this voyage would be about the comet, but he didn’t need to.

Besides, this identity Brian had taken on had quickly become Ahab’s only friend, and who was he to tell the old man no?

“I would be honored,” he answered simply.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> absolutely no dialogue or events in this chapter folks. sort of my rendition of "knights and squires" for those of you familiar with the novel. spot the quotes lifted from the book. let's meet some of the crew of the pequod!

In all honesty, Brian wasn’t sure what to expect from the Pequod, or its crew. He had been acquainted with Ahab for some time but had not yet accompanied him on one of these starchasing voyages, as they were sometimes dubbed. The Pequod was a smaller ship than the Aurora, by far, but most ships that Brian encountered were. 

He was made the ship’s first mate, a role which he felt wholly unprepared for. He wasn’t clueless about astronomy, surely, but still knew far less than Captain Ahab or the other mates, who had been researching the stars their entire lives. And, in addition to their role in the chain of command, on a ship like this, the mates were expected to lead in scientific knowledge as well.

The second and third mates were named Stubb and Flask, respectively. They were both from nearby planets in the same system as New Nantucket, and both had years of experience behind them, but in personality the two were quite different. Stubb treated everything, no matter how grave, with an indifference that had struck Brian in a way he still could not place. Stubb was irreverent to the perils of his profession - and, let it be said, this profession was not without peril. He was a mortal man, but long usage had, for this Stubb, converted the jaws of death into an easy chair. He always whistled or sang while at work, and smoked his pipe, and nothing was too serious for him to crack a joke about. Flask, the third mate, handled things with more seriousness than Stubb if only by virtue of being extremely quick-tempered. He was a stern-faced and stout little man, and so utterly lost was he to all sense of reverence for the many marvels of the stars which he studied and explored. Flask was also not the most clever man, and often Stubb’s sense of humor seemed to go right over his head. Despite their differences, though, Brian’s fellow mates seemed to have something of a friendship between them, even if it was the argumentative sort that he had grown accustomed to from the crew of the Aurora. Brian wasn’t entirely sure what to make of either of them, but he soon got the sense that Stubb, at least, didn’t like him very much, as the second mate often mocked Brian for his carefulness and his concern with the safety of his crew. But, he reasoned with himself, that seemed to just be Stubb’s way. Surely he meant no more harm by it than Jonny or anyone else.

Assigned to each of the mates was an engineer of sorts, who worked closely with him and did most of the necessary skilled manual labor. Brian, for his part, felt he could have handled most of such tasks himself, but he didn’t protest. The man assigned to him was named Queequeg. He was not from New Nantucket or indeed its star system, but had been away from his own planet, called Rokovoko, for many years. He was incredibly skilled and, though Brian had initially thought his help would not be necessary, he greatly appreciated it. Queequeg’s brown skin was covered in tattoos, from head to foot, and he had perhaps the kindest black eyes Brian had ever seen. Practically joined at his hip was another young man, presumably of the intellectual sort, as seemed rather unsuited to any sort of manual labor. Brian never, despite the length of their voyage, actually learned the young man’s name. He never gave him one; perhaps, though it sounded ridiculous, he didn’t have one to give. For reasons that would become apparent later, he called him Ishmael when he recounted the story. Ishmael had a sad sort of air about him, even when he laughed, and absolutely no experience in space exploration. Brian soon learned that the young man and Queequeg were lovers, and his heart ached for them with a painful sense of knowing.

The engineers that worked with the other two mates were women, and their names were Tashtego and Daggoo. Tashtego was from the same planet as Flask, but was Stubb’s engineer. Daggoo, like Queegueg, was from outside the system, and Brian wasn’t sure if everyone from her world tended to be so tall or if it was just her, but she was even taller than him, which was impressive. To see her next to little Flask, whom she worked under, was admittedly an amusing sight. Brian spoke with both of them far less than he did with Queequeg, and didn’t get to know them especially well, but they seemed to get along.

Ahab scarcely left the captain’s cabin for the first while of their voyage, though no one could say why, and so the crew was left answering mostly to Brian. He found they all treated him with far more respect than the crew of the Aurora had for their first mate. He soon developed a sort of familiar fondness for the crew of the Pequod, as he had easily become fond of the captain ere they departed together. He did have an unfortunate propensity for getting attached to doomed mortals, after all.

  
  



End file.
